Visual Astronomy for the Classroom

Speakers

Speaker

Gloria J. Brown-Simmons is an artist and aesthetic engineer who helps people "see" and interact with planetary data in order to experience the beauty of nature and better understand geophysical phenomena. Trained as a visual artist, Ms. Brown-Simmons integrates aesthetics with image processing, animation, simulation and interactive immersive environments as part of her work.

Ms. Brown-Simmons applies her artistic sensibilities to visualization projects as a collaborator at international institutions. Her appointments include Harvard University; TASC; Caltech/JPL; MIT; an Interagency Personnel Appointee (IPA) for NASA to the GLOBE Program, White House; the University of Arizona and the University of California. She has also collaborated with NEON on location based information appliances and with Peter Chermayeff on immersive ocean environments. Ms. Brown-Simmons is currently working to create AST (art, science and technology) experiences focused on astronomy and Earth science for students in Monmouth County, New Jersey.

Her work has been broadcast on television networks, published in international journals, and presented at international conferences and exhibitions including the Banff New Media Center, ACM SIGGRAPH; The Netherlands Design Institute’s Doors of Perception; the Biennial Sao Paulo; and Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria.

In addition to her work in visual studies, she investigates ways to represent data, communication methods and how visualization creates an innovative approach to system design. Ms. Brown-Simmons is currently exploring Earth system science (ESS) data in game engines and investigating the possibility of integrating planetary data with other data sources through sophisticated interfaces that link individuals with major resource and service providers.